Jorma Ollila has confirmed he will step down as chairman of Finnish vendor Nokia at next year’s spring AGM, after being reelected yesterday for another year in the role.
Back in September, Ollila dismissed reports that he could step down in 2012 to clear…
Jorma Ollila has confirmed he will step down as chairman of Finnish vendor Nokia at next year’s spring AGM, after being reelected yesterday for another year in the role.
Back in September, Ollila dismissed reports that he could step down in 2012 to clear the way for a newly appointed CEO, Stephen Elop, to turn around the ailing company as “speculative reading”.
However, Ollila had publicly indicated when he was elected in 2005 that he did not intend his chairmanship to be “forever”.
Nokia has been busy trying to revive its smartphone business in the face of significant competition from internet giants such as Apple.
On 21 September, the company brought in former Microsoft executive Stephen Elop to replace Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo as CEO. And in February, it announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft, under which it will adopt the Windows Phone as its operating system for smartphones, together with the search tool Bing.
A spokesman for Nokia declined to comment on plans for Ollila’s successor.
